"For the actor, it was the ultimate nightmare experience, because it was one of the first things we shot and everybody just wanted to be Lars' favorite," laughs Sutherland, enjoying a visit to his hometown, Toronto, where "Melancholia" screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

"He just kept calling, 'Action.' It was like, 'What the f- are we doing? What page are we on?' But they were really great days. People were really loose. That was the one sequence where I watched about eight unbelievable actors all feel like extras that didn't know what the f- they were doing, and Lars liked that a lot."

An intense presence on the screen and on television, where he fought terrorists for eight seasons as federal agent Jack Bauer on "24," in person Sutherland is a warm, affable presence. Those are the qualities he brings to his character in "Melancholia." The man may be a master of the universe who boorishly goes on about how much he spent on his sister-in-law Justine's wedding and can be awful to the servants, but he is also a good husband and father to his young son. And as the world teeters on the brink, he responds with optimistic certainty that the worst will never happen, in contrast to Justine, who is just as sure the end is here.

Arrogance of the man

"I think this film is about Lars," says Sutherland. "He believes that my character represents 98 percent of the population - and this is the arrogance of man - that thinks we can control our destiny and look at a planet that is coming straight at us and go, 'It's not going to hit us, because how could it do that to me?' And Kirsten's character represents the 2 percent part of the population that is still kind of harmoniously in touch with earth and is sensitive enough and struggles with the feeling of this impending doom. And that would be Lars.

"The two of us realized we were the perfect match for this, because I was very happy to represent the 98 percent of the people that had hope and Lars was very happy to be the 2 percent of like, 'The f- sky is falling!' " he adds, chuckling.

Sutherland was in the last season of "24" when he got a crash course on the collected works of Lars von Trier. The television show at that point left him feeling as if he were in a vacuum, and he was searching for something new. A friend of his, a huge von Trier fan, heard about "Melancholia" and thought he would be perfect for it, but first she had to immerse her pal in von Trier's universe.

"As an actor, I probably wasn't as familiar with Lars' work as I probably should have been," he admits. "She educated me very quickly."

The actor was struck by von Trier's visual style and a collection of films he found heartbreaking and moving. But what intrigued him most was the way the director used his various casts, as over and over actors whose work he knew well surprised him with their performances in von Trier's universe.

"That made me go, 'Why? I wonder what he does to them to make them approach this role in a very different way.' I was very curious about that," he says.

Three decades in showbiz

In traveling to Sweden to make "Melancholia," he got his answer on the very first day of shooting. At age 44, Sutherland has appeared in some 80 movies and television shows since making his debut at 16 in the 1983 Neil Simon comedy "Max Dugan Returns," including 195 episodes of "24." After three decades in the business, he thought he knew everything there was to know about acting in front of a camera.

"There's one constant in every job I've every done, which is you get to work in the morning, you read it through with the other actors, the director or you and the director block it out, you rehearse it and you shoot it. That constant has never been broken," he says.

Until that inaugural morning on set when von Trier led him and Gainsbourg to a door and told them to walk through and start the scene.

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"I realize we're not going to block it, we're not going to rehearse it, he's just going to shoot it. I panicked," he recalls.

"Once I surrendered to that, there was an unbelievable freedom to it. What it did for me is it did deconstruct everything I knew about what I'm used to doing as an actor. I was so busy trying to kind of figure out between Charlotte and I in the middle of making the scene, trying to hit the points I thought were important, I became completely unaware of where the camera was, never saw it, actually. I was in a moment and that was a huge education for me."

One of Sutherland's favorite memories from his days with von Trier was an encounter with John Hurt during the wedding sequence. Sutherland was passing him with drinks in hand, while Hurt was waltzing with the twins that his character had brought to the reception as his dates.

"As I went past, John looked at me and went, 'I've got no idea what I'm doing,' " he chuckles. "Lars hadn't directed any of us and it was just a f- yard sale. There was that kind of atmosphere about it.

"When we met over Skype, Lars just made me laugh and I thought, 'OK, I'll have a run at this,' " he adds.

"I think the script was maybe 60 pages long at this point, half Danish, half English, so it was a real leap of faith, and it was kind of one of the best leaps I've made. I loved working with him. He has a special place in my heart." {sbox}